Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) in Saskatoon, Canada have released a draft lentil genome assembly, based on CDC Redberry, a well-known small red lentil variety developed by Bert Vandenberg, a U of S plant sciences professor and lentil breeder.

FAO 20 January 2016, Rome - With the war in Syria now approaching its sixth year, agricultural production has plummeted and food supplies are at an all-time low, pushing millions of people into hunger. FAO today called on governments to provide a boost in funding targeted at helping farmers keep their lands in production to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further.

A new study published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled Agricultural Biotechnology Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013-2019, reports that the global agricultural biotechnology market was worth US$15.3 billion in 2012, and is expected to double by 2019, growing at a 9.5% CAGR from 2013 to 2019.

India is the latest addition to the Global Yield Gap Atlas that provides important information on the capacities of various countries to be self-sufficient in staple food crop production now and in the future. So far the Atlas has been populated for 24 countries for five major staple crops (maize, wheat, rice, sorghum and millet) and analyses for 25 additional countries is in progress.

Bangladesh has become a food self-sufficient country, owing to the hard work of its farmers and the government's dedicated policy support. Food self-sufficiency, however, does not guarantee food security unless food is distributed evenly among the poorest section of the country. Food security is a fundamental right of every citizen. Dr Mahabub Hossain, an eminent agricultural economist of Asia, believed in such a right.

Scientists Satoko Nonaka and Hiroshi Ezura of the University of Tsukuba consolidated the transformation techniques used to improve the critical traits of Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae families. This chapter is part of Functional Genomics and Biotechnology in Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae Crops published by SpringerLink.

Phasic contractions of collecting lymphatic vessels aid in the centripetal propulsion of lymph. The numerical model published in PNAS by Kunert et al. (1) describes how two “complementary feedback loops” involving Ca²⁺ and nitric oxide (NO) interact to drive the phasic contraction/relaxation cycle of lymphatic smooth muscle. The cycle is proposed to be initiated by a stretch-induced rise in lymphatic muscle Ca²⁺

For years, scientists wondered how legumes recognize nitrogen-fixing bacteria as both friendly and distinct from their own cells, and how the host plant's specialized proteins find the bacteria. A team of molecular biologists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Dong Wang has found how a gene in the host plant encodes a protein that recognizes the cell membrane surrounding the symbiotic bacteria, then directs other proteins to harvest the nutrients.

The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) reported that the whole genome assembly of bread wheat, the most widely grown cereal globally, has been completed. The project consisted of producing a whole genome assembly of the bread wheat variety Chinese Spring based on Illumina short sequence reads assembled with NRGene's DeNovoMAGIC software. It is expected that with this new data available, global research on crop improvement will be accelerated.

IRRI: Matthew Morell is IRRI’s director general with decades of leadership experience driven by a passion for scientific excellence, an understanding of private-public partnerships, a sound capacity for stakeholder engagement, protection of intellectual property, and people engagement skills.